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The Foreign Office is contesting the case because it officially denies liability and maintains the Kenyans have left it too late to make claims.

Yesterday, each of the three claimants walked slowly to the witness stand to deliver their graphic testimony.

But before Guy Mansfield, the Foreign Office’s QC, cross-examined them, he said: ‘I wish to make it clear that the British Government does not dispute that each of you suffered torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.’

Seeking damages: Four Mau Mau survivors who are suing the British government over allegations they were tortured during uprisings in Kenya in the 1950s and 1960s

Turning to Paulo Nzili, 85, who was castrated with a pair of pliers, he said: ‘I do not dispute with Mr Nzili that terrible things happened to him.’

Last night Martyn Day, senior partner at Leigh Day & Co, said: ‘Our clients are very pleased that the Government has accepted that they were tortured.’

The Mau Mau uprising began in 1952 to end British colonial rule. Britain initially dismissed reports of unrest, but later declared a state of emergency – introducing the death penalty for Mau Mau members. The violence ended in 1956, but the state of emergency was only revoked in 1960.

The then Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, offered to resign over British troops’ actions during the rebellion. He was persuaded to stay in office by Harold Macmillan.

Atrocities: A British guard in a Mau Mau camp in 1953. One survivor has told how he was brutally castrated in a detention camp during the rebellion

In July 1959, Enoch Powell attacked government policy over the Mau Mau. Speaking about the Hola camp, where 11 Mau Mau were killed after refusing to work, Mr Powell noted that some MPs had described the 11 as ‘sub-human’.

He told MPs: ‘I would say that it is a fearful doctrine, to stand in judgment on a fellow human being and to say, “because he was such-and-such, therefore the consequences which would otherwise flow from his death shall not flow”.’

A year ago, the three Kenyans were told by Mr Justice McCombe that they had ‘arguable cases in law’. He will now decide if a fair trial is possible. The Government says it is not.

Mr Mansfield said the Foreign Office faced ‘irredeemable difficulties’ defending itself because key witnesses had died. In a written submission, the FO declared: ‘After so long, it is simply impossible.’

Last night a FO spokesman said: ‘We understand the pain and grievance felt by those on all sides in the bloody events of the Kenya emergency period in Kenya.’